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The Iran Deal Must Remain

There is simply no reason for the United States to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

The terms of the Iran nuclear deal, once one gets past rhetoric, are strict. Iran’s centrifuges were cut by 2/3s, and Iran’s uranium stockpile was cut from 10,000kg of uranium to just 300kg of uranium. Additionally, Iran’s remaining centrifuges and other nuclear equipment will be placed under international inspection, which further prevents Iran from “cheating” and discreetly obtaining a nuclear weapon. This makes it essentially impossible for Iran to build a nuclear bomb in the next 10-20 years - whereas before, Iran was a year away from a nuclear bomb. And while President Trump continues to bemoan the “150 billion dollars” that the US gave Iran, this is an alteration of the truth. Rather, these were 150 billion dollars of frozen Iranian assets that were subsequently unfrozen when the sanctions on Iran were lifted. Without the deal, all of this goes to waste, and Iran is closer to achieving a nuclear bomb. Without a deal, there is nothing stopping Iran from reactivating its advanced centrifuges and enriching uranium to the point where it can be used in a nuclear bomb.

Furthermore, most criticisms thrown at the Iran deal are nonsensical. In addition to the aforementioned “150 billion dollar” claim, are the arguments voiced by Newt Gingrich that Iran remains aggressive and continues to build ballistic missiles. The reason why Iran does this is simple - the Iran nuclear deal has nothing to do with Iranian regional aggression and testing of ballistic missiles armed with conventional warheads. Just as cold war arms reduction treaties between the US and USSR said nothing about communism and the Soviet attempt to violently spread communism, neither should the Iran nuclear deal say anything about Iran’s attempt to spread Islamism across the Middle East. The concern of a nuclear deal is nuclear weapons, not regional wars.

The geopolitical ramifications of withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal are also largely negative, particularly as it concerns to the P5+1, the group of major powers that negotiated the deal with Iran (consisting of the US, UK, Germany, France, Russia and China).. Relations between the United States and Russia are already terrible, and US-China relations are not much better. US allies in the P5+1 (The UK, France and Germany) would only lose trust in the US if the US withdraws from the Iran deal. In fact, only Saudi Arabia and Israel support Trump’s stance on the Iran deal. In the grand scheme of things, maintaining good relationships with NATO allies and decent relationships with Russia and China are far more important than appeasing Gulf monarchies and Israel at every major foreign policy decision.

Nobody questions the fact that Iran is an enemy of the United States - this is the country whose lawmakers chant “Death to America”, but this doesn’t mean that the US should consistently pursue the most aggressive stance against Iran. Sanity and rationality should ultimately prevail over rhetoric.